Rosi Webb: Stanway Pegasus manager making mark in men's non-league game
- Published
Rosi Webb was previously a Football Association skills coach for four years
It's been a golden year for women in football, highlighted by England winning the Euro 2022 title.
Players including Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo and Georgia Stanway have become household names but there are still barriers to break down, especially a lack of opportunities for female coaches to work with men's teams.
But Stanway Pegasus FC manager Rosi Webb is proving a successful trailblazer.
Just over a year into her role, it has been a success so far for the 34-year-old former Tottenham and Charlton youth player.
Her side won the Essex and Suffolk Border League title last season, winning 32 out of 34 games and scoring 126 goals in the process, and were top of Eastern Counties League First Division South before Saturday's draw at Tower Hamlets dropped them to second, nine games into the new campaign.
"It's going to take a few years, but I want to coach as high as I can and Stanway Pegasus is the right place for me to keep learning and developing," said Webb, who has a Uefa B coaching licence and is hoping to take the A course.
Her side now play in step six of the English non-league football pyramid, the club having been formed in 2018.
And it is fitting that they play home games at Stanway School in Colchester as Webb is passionate about the need for clubs like hers to develop their own young talent, which is occurring as it also did under her predecessor as manager, Ray Turner.
"We want to have a youth section where those players eventually play for the first team, whether that be the ladies' side or the men's side, we don't want to be one of those clubs where they get to senior football and look elsewhere," she told BBC Essex.
"A lot of the young players coming through are technically really, really good so we've got high hopes for them and we're really excited about what the future might hold for the club.
"We want to be a club that's sustainable, you don't want to find yourselves in a position where each season you are going out and looking for new players or you'll find yourself in a situation where you've got a very thin squad."
Last season's promotion has meant that Webb is facing a new challenge along with her players.
"The best thing about this league is it's competitive. You know you're going to play for 90 minutes, you're not going to face a team that's going to fold after 60 minutes and give you an easy finish to a game," she said.
"We know that going to these London teams, it's going to be a battle, we're going to have to dig deep. Every game for us is a big game.
"You don't know a lot about the teams you face, we just take care of what we do and we're confident in the players we've got and how we set up that we're going to give anyone a good game every week."
Rosi Webb and owner Ian Booth with the Essex & Suffolk Border League trophy
Webb cites former Charlton midfielder Paul Mortimer as her biggest influence as a coach - "he demanded a lot of you, but you really felt he understood you as an individual as well," she explained.
She is grateful to Stanway Pegasus owner Ian Booth - who is also her assistant - for the show of faith in promoting her from coach to manager, but does not regard it as a gamble.
"I'm extremely proud of what I've achieved but also what the club's achieved. Not many clubs would have given me the opportunity," she said.
"That really represents the club that we are. I look at our committee and the average age is probably 26, and we are really fighting to set a standard of what inclusion looks like and showing these young people not just that there's a pathway in football, there's a pathway in coaching as well."
So what is the hardest thing for a woman coaching a men's team?
"When I first came in I thought it would be difficult to win them over but they were really receptive. The hardest thing is trying to juggle their work commitments and football commitments," said Webb, who is also the club secretary.
Although Stanway Pegasus are flying high at their new level, with 20 points from their opening nine games, she knows tougher spells lie ahead and describes her squad as "realists".
She says the club hope to one day have a ground of their own - "a place that we can call home" - but, for now, will "keep progressing as much as we can".
She added: "A lot of work goes on off the pitch. We've got so many fantastic people in the background. What I do is just a small part of what the club's about really."
Rosi Webb was speaking to BBC Essex sports editor Glenn Speller